Buffers are commonly used in network forwarding elements as temporary storages for data. For instance, a network forwarding element might use buffers to store packet data, either after that data is initially received (before the data is processed) or before the data is sent back out over the network. Forwarding elements may also use buffers to store packet data at various intermediate stages in packet processing. As hardware forwarding elements with easily configurable packet processing pipelines emerge, it would be beneficial to have various aspects of the buffer usage be configurable as well.